University of Missouri, United States.
University of Missouri, United States.
Cognition. 2018 Aug;177:69-78. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2018.04.002. Epub 2018 Apr 10.
Children who achieve an early understanding of the cardinal value of number words (cardinal knowledge) have a superior understanding of the relations among numerals at school entry, controlling other factors (e.g., intelligence). We tested the hypothesis that this pattern emerges because an understanding of cardinal value jump starts children's learning of the relations among numerals. Across two years of preschool, the cardinal knowledge of 179 children (85 boys) was assessed four times, as was their understanding of the relative quantity of Arabic numerals and competence at discriminating nonsymbolic quantities. Children were more accurate on nonsymbolic than numeral comparisons before they understood cardinality, but showed more rapid growth for numeral than nonsymbolic comparisons once they understood cardinality. Moreover, and with the possible exception of very small numerals (<5), before they understood cardinality children were no better than chance in their numeral comparisons, but greatly exceeded chance once they understood cardinality. These patterns were independent of the age at which children became cardinal principle knowers and independent of intelligence, executive function, and preliteracy skills. More broadly, the results provide a developmental bridge between cardinal knowledge and school-entry number knowledge.
儿童如果能够早期理解基数词的基本价值（基数知识），那么他们在入学时就会对数字之间的关系有更好的理解，这可以控制其他因素（例如智力）。我们测试了这样一个假设，即这种模式的出现是因为对基数价值的理解使儿童开始学习数字之间的关系。在两年的学前教育中，我们对 179 名儿童（85 名男孩）的基数知识进行了四次评估，同时评估了他们对阿拉伯数字的相对数量的理解能力和区分非符号数量的能力。在儿童理解基数之前，他们在非符号比较上比数字比较更准确，但在理解基数之后，他们在数字比较上的增长速度比非符号比较更快。此外，除了非常小的数字（<5）之外，在儿童理解基数之前，他们在数字比较上的表现并不比随机更好，但一旦他们理解了基数，他们的表现就大大超过了随机。这些模式与儿童成为基数原理认知者的年龄以及智力、执行功能和读写前技能无关。更广泛地说，这些结果在基数知识和入学时的数字知识之间提供了一个发展桥梁。
